A couple of years ago, a friend at work, who knew I was interested in photographing (dead) animals, told me about this major elk hunting weekend that takes place in Kremmling, Colorado. That year, my close friend and I went and had an amazing time photographing. I’ve posted about it and mentioned it here before, but stumbling upon this project by Andrew Tunnard made me so nostalgic for that time. It’s no secret that some of my favorite photography series exploring animals are photojournalistic. I appreciate that this work is driven by consideration of the original necessity for taxidermy, now arguably irrelevant, and the closeness taxidermy allows.
From the artist’s statement: Taxidermy is a method museums have used since the Victorian era to display animal specimens to the general public. Since then, wildlife television programmes and photographs can display the animals within their natural environment, negating the [original] [necessity] for taxidermy. However, it still remains a valuable and intriguing method of education to this day, and no other method of display allows the public to get so close to physical representations of these animals.
From “Skins & Skeletons”
Visit artist's site: atunnard.com
Source: ECAPTURE Journal
Posted July 29th, 2013
